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OBJECTIVE: To assess the predictive value of calcium intake from milk products and its effect of this on the total contribution of food calcium. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study. SETTING: Urban and rural health centres in Spain. PARTICIPANTS: Patients aged 20 or over who attended for consultation for whatever reason in the time-period set. Criterion for exclusion: terminal illness. 1546 questionnaires were included in the study. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Consumption of calcium from milk products and from other sources. RESULTS: The intake of milk products accounted for 66.8% of the total intake of calcium (0%-93%). The consumption of ≤2 rations of milk products per day supposed a total calcium intake of under 1000 mg/day; of >3 rations, a total intake of 1000–1500 mg/day; and of >4 rations, 1500 mg/day. In subjects with low milk product intake (≤2 rations per day), the predictive value of this for total calcium was low (10%–30%); and in those with >4 rations, its predictive value was 70% CONCLUSIONS: Calculation of the total intake of calcium in milk products is useful in the consultation, but undervalues the real contribution, as it takes no notice of calcium from other food sources. Only the intake of >4 rations of milk products a day is sufficiently predictive.

A cross-sectional survey was conducted to determine the current situation in Spain regarding diagnosis and care of patients with osteoporosis in the primary care setting. A total of 2,500 primary care physicians who were homogeneously grouped in autonomous communities throughout the country received a postal 30-item anonymous self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire covered demographics and personal characteristics of the physicians, conditions in everyday consultation, and degree of knowledge with regard to risk factors, diagnosis, treatment, and follow-up of the disease. The overall response was 850 (34%). The mean age of physicians surveyed was 43 years (range 23-66 years). The percentage of physicians specialized in community and family medicine was 46.7%. In 55.2% of cases, years of practice ranged between 11 and 20, and 55.7% of physicians visited between 31 and 50 patients per day. Age and years of practice were not associated with daily number of visits. Only 4% of physicians stated that there were specific programs for osteoporosis implemented in their primary care center. Diagnostic complementary investigations that could be ordered included plain radiographs in 96.2% of cases and bone densitometry in 27.8%. Laboratory tests included serum hormones in 61.6% of cases, PTH in 50.2%, and bone alkaline phosphatase in 33.4%. The diagnosis of osteoporosis was made always personally in 25.2% of cases. Personal diagnosis and follow-up, as well as actions directed to detection of osteoporosis were significantly higher among physicians working in centers with specific programs for osteoporosis. With regard to knowledge about osteoporosis, the mean percentage of correct responses was 63%. The percentage of correct responses was inversely associated with age and years of practice, and positively associated with speciality of community and family medicine. Primary care providers are in a good position to assess risk factors and recommend prevention strategies, as well as to play an active role in the diagnosis, care, and follow-up of patients with osteoporosis. Practitioners of younger age and relatively few years of practice were those with more up-to-date information regarding the disease, and the existence of a specific program for osteoporosis seems to improve the management of this condition.

OBJECTIVE: To discover how osteoporosis is tackled in Spanish primary care before the publication of the semFYC osteoporosis guide. DESIGN: Self-filled questionnaire for primary care doctors sent out by commercial mail (in blocks per province). Setting. Five thousand family medicine clinics in Spain. PARTICIPANTS: Doctors working in primary care. MEASUREMENTS: Level of activity relating to osteoporosis in daily consultations (identification of risk factors, screening, who conducts diagnosis and follow-up, level of access to densitometry and specialist) and identification data (province, type of work centre and number of consultations per day). MAIN RESULTS: 414 replies embracing reformed and non-reformed centres from the entire country, with different case overloads. 32.3% stated that osteoporosis treatment was viewed as a preventive activity in their centre and only 35.5% systematically asked for family history of osteoporosis. Osteoporosis screening was high in determined situations (82.9% in vertebral compression, 78.3% in hip fracture) and deficient in others (59.6% in glucocorticoid treatment, 46.6% in colles fractures, 36% in chronic nephropathy, 29.2% in thinness, 17.1% in chronic hepatopathy and 11.8% in treatment for epilepsy or with lithium). 73.9% could not request bone densitometry and 64.3% thought that access to other care levels was complicated. 51.9% said they continued to monitor osteoporosis. The impossibility of requesting densitometry or difficult access conditioned the screening level. There were differences in access according to autonomous communities, with Catalonia having best access to Densitometry (75%), followed by the communities of Madrid, Valencia and Euskadi (30%). CONCLUSIONS: Diagnosis of osteoporosis in primary care is deficient and is partly conditioned by difficulty in access to diagnostic tests and the lack of systematic screening.

To relate the characteristics of working activity to the level of tiredness at work (low, medium and high).A crossover, observational and random study.Primary Care Centres in Spain, belonging to the new sanitary model.116 doctors (75% General Practitioners, 19% paediatricians and 6% Interns in their third year of Family Medicine (R-3)). An anonymous survey sent by mail over five consecutive days, during a period without any epidemics. Tiredness at work was measured on a scale of 0 to 10 (nil to maximum) by means of 7 questions covering quantitative working activity (the number of patients seen, of discussions between nurse and doctor, of emergencies and home visits), its quality (the type of patient, the bureaucracy involved) and the doctor's length of experience.The tiredness at work found was 4.7 +/- 1.6. Those who showed high levels of tiredness had greater working activity in both the quantitative and qualitative senses than those with medium tiredness; and these, in their turn, greater working activity than those with low tiredness. Doctors' length of experience did not affect the level of tiredness. General Practitioners were more tired than paediatricians and R-3.A doctor's tiredness at work is determined by the number of patients seen, the type of patient and the amount of bureaucracy and organisation. All these factors should be borne in mind when the doctor's working activities are organised.